As wildlife and Blacksmith Village started to settle down for the night, Guinevere Emberblight remained on the side of the road where Artie dropped her off. While sitting there, she polished her mirror and casually ate the piece of bread. Overhead, clouds started to build on top of one another, indicating that a storm may be coming. The wind picked up, but Gwen just casually continued to sit there, not giving a darn. Ten minutes later, a carriage appeared on the road further down. Gwen watched and continued to eat her bread as it came within reach of her and stopped. Sitting in the carriage, staring straight into her eyes...was Elisabeth. Her jaw dropped to the ground, and she studied her daughter up and down. Gwen took another bite of the piece of bread and nodded. There was a long, awkward silence between the two, but it didn't last forever.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCdcTNBCwh8
Gwen eventually lifted her hand and said, "Hello. How are you?" with a small flick of her wrist.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8dv6QfkAnx
"I thought I lost you!" Elisabeth sobbed only a short time later in the carriage, "Thanks to your little forest detour, I had to reschedule the suitors!"10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWwjttDZRbF
"Really?" Guinevere sarcastically asked. She tried not to smile, "That's awful," but quickly hid behind her hand when she felt one coming. 10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtgQcQCTlJO
"Yes, it is!" Still sobbing, Elisabeth slapped her hands to her face, "I had everything planned perfectly! It's just so hard, you know? If you don't get married, how am I supposed to live with myself?" Between the sobbing mother and her daughter was Gwen's mirror. Strangely, it seemed to stare at the two, as if something was living inside it.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwY7WEOmPYC
Gwen rested her chin on top of it and told her mother, "I told you, Mom. If we have any hope for a second chance in life, then I have to find my brother."10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRqpw6eg2CT
"No! I can't let you become a musketeer! There is too much at stake!"10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡScDzQ19mP7
"Mom, what did I tell you earlier? Leave the broken mountain behind and just focus on the next one. Failure is just a word. It is not the end of the world. You may be living in the past, but I'm living in the future."10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5SJrMh5Icr
"No." Elisabeth frightfully repeated. She shook her head and looked away from her daughter, "I can't. Your father." Just as she said that, images of her past terrors as well as when she cuddled her husband's bloody corpse after the battle reentered her brain, and she brought her hand to her face. Like what happened to Gwen in the forest, her breathing turned rapid. The post-traumatic war stress was just too much for her to handle. She felt like she was losing her mind.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrEGtmFMLjo
It did not take long for Gwen to realize that her mother was suffering from another panic attack.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHWMtL8wggW
Frightened, she held her hands out to her and quickly said, "It's okay! I don't mean to stress you out!"10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNDJXao5bq4
"The war!" Elisabeth sobbed, "It haunts me!"10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYacbpQoVHn
"I know it does, but you can't let the guilt overtake you. I'll find my brother, Mom. As long as he is on our side, we will win. Please. I know you can do this."10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ30VvWn21JF
"But what if what happened to your father happens to you?" asked Elisabeth, "I can't lose you, Gwen. You're all I have left."10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRdNMbrZRsU
"No, I'm not. Somewhere out there, my brother is waiting for me. It almost feels as if he is right under our noses."10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVqrcb1RAmb
When the carriage made it to Gwen and Elisabeth's farm two hours later, it was dark out. Luckily, the storm never came to it. The rays from the full moon lit up the path that took them to their front door. Elisabeth climbed out first, still shivering from the effects of her earlier panic attack, and dragged herself to the farmhouse.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7lAlKuiHDv
On her way there, Gwen heard her mumbling to herself, "Today was nothing but a big, fat failure." Sure, in her mind it was a failure, but in Gwen's mind, today was a victory. After all, she did meet a mysterious boy and wolf and bought herself an awesome souvenir. She climbed out of the carriage next and followed Elisabeth, but she held back for a bit so she could practice a few more musketeer moves. Thanks to the light of the full moon, she could see what she was doing. Gwen stood up straight, held her sword out to her side, and lifted her shield-like mirror. In the meantime, Elisabeth just said, "I'm going to be," and she vanished inside the farmhouse's front door. Gwen remained in the moonlight. She performed a backflip and stabbed her sword's tip into the nighttime air. Little did she know that off to the side, something or someone was watching her from the shadows. It was the wolf. He lowered his head and rubbed his paws on the ground. It looked like he was getting ready to pounce. Gwen did not see him. She just continued to practice. The entire time she did, she thought about what happened to her that day and asked questions about many different things. Questions like: What was the wolf? Who was Artie? Why did he ask her if she recognized him? What was Illusion? Did it really have the power to grant somebody whatever they desired most in life? If so, what if she used the legendary mirror to guarantee her a position in the musketeer world? There was so much on Gwen's plate right now. While she was very bewildered, she also couldn't help but to feel a pinch of excitement within her. The wolf felt the same way. A strange phenomenon happened to him today too, and he had very similar questions running through his brain. However, he decided not to bother Gwen. He just wanted to make sure she got back to her farm okay. The wolf slid his paws on the ground and backed away from her. He took off at a full sprint and hurried to the edge of the forest where he first met Gwen that morning.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMrLNAkjEKq
While there, under the light of the full moon, he lifted his head and howled into the cool night, "Awoo!"10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlc9yA48UH4
Gwen visited the farmhouse's library that night. She remembered Elisabeth told her how much her father loved to read, so therefore, during his musketeer journeys, he picked up books from all different places in Europe and brought them back home. Gwen's mother also had a great admiration for reading, so some of the books also belonged to her. Gwen hoped that somewhere in the library, she would find a clue to Illusion, or something that at least told her a little more about it. Why should she take that two-hour-journey back into the village if something was hidden right here?10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIBoY0trPNE
The young lady wore her nightgown into the library. She held a lantern in one hand and her shield-like mirror in the other. The library, while small, it had a huge selection of books (even though most of them were cramped together). To access it, she had to waddle down a wooden staircase. Directly at the foot of it was a table, and that was where she set her lantern down. She also propped the mirror up against one of the table's legs. In the corner of the small library was a ladder. Gwen, knowing that her mother and father kept the most expensive, rare texts near the top of the bookshelves, grabbed it. The young lady held onto it as she started to climb the ladder. On her way up to the top shelves, she rubbed the spines of books with her index finger.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnZlFIPAoA
Down below, something strange happened to her mirror. From out of nowhere, it started to shake a bit. Deep within it appeared a pair of glowing, red eyes. What was going on here? Though it looked like the mirror was suffering from a seizure, it made no noise, so Gwen did not notice it.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwddZcqqp0d
She stopped climbing the ladder when she reached the top bookshelves and shone her lantern over each spine so she could read them.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCQ128jHkTg
"Illusion. Illusion," she mumbled to herself as she did this.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1F31ixNNaC
The shield-like mirror continued to shake, and giggling came from deep within it. It sounded like the giggling Gwen heard earlier in her room when her mother prettied her up for the village. It had the same mystical yet sinister quality to it. Whatever was going on her was mysterious, yet magical.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjYE04cGonN
Only a few seconds later, Gwen said,10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO0LRpzDsv4
"Ah ha, here we go." She pulled one book out from the bookshelf and read the title out loud, "Legends of Irodia." Irodia was the name of the kingdom in which she lived. Gwen tucked her find under her arm and made her way back down the ladder. When she reached the third stair near the base, she hopped off and hurried back over to the table. Gwen almost slammed the lantern back down on the table and set the huge, dusty red book down next to it. Something inside her said that there was something in it that would help her.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhbSGM36g02
Therefore, Gwen flipped through the pages and skimmed each one.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu1Rx1QBYeL
As she worked, she mumbled to herself and read the pages out loud, "Irodia is home to a huge witch population, which makes it particularly vulnerable to those considered heretics." She flipped over to the next chapter, "Chapter V: Medieval Stories, Myths, and Legends. This is what I'm looking for." Gwen's fingers tensed as she hurried through each page, hoping to find what she was looking for. There it was. "There!" the young woman shouted suddenly, and she slammed her palm down on one page. Her sudden reaction startled the mirror, and it shook even more than it already was. The page Gwen was looking at - sure enough, it said Illusion on top of it. Under the title was a drawing of the very reproduction she owned and under that, a prophecy,
"The one whom howls to the Moon shall meet their destiny in the Mirror of Illusion.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjsSMvvfEzi
They fight a battle between confidence and un-confidence.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiedQeEJSoZ
The one whom strives shall release them of their curse, and the one whom dies shall forever live in agony and disarray.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSA8vUegJac
A witch will capture them, but only confidence will survive.10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqud1b5ZAFY
Only then will the kingdom truly become nigh."10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDiQG6Cnq60
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What in the name of heck was this prophecy supposed to mean? Merely reading it gave Gwen a headache. She prepared to close the book, but then her blue eyes landed on a paragraph under the prophecy. The legend itself. Right here, right now, and directly in front of her was the legend of Illusion,10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGyXU8tWRZ1
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"The Temple of the Mirror is where Illusion hides. In ancient times, our ancestors retrieved it from the Knights Templar and claimed it as their own. Thanks to a witch's heroic action, the mirror now resides in Irodia and waits for confidence and un-confidence to intertwine with each other. Those who find it receive a great gift which comes with consequence. As the centuries continue, the witch waits for the children of legend - the one whom fights for truths and the one whom fights for ideals. The children, whose destiny will free Irodia from its everlasting war, will have a connection that dates back to the time of our ancestors, to those who claim themselves as the Knights Templar."10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyP3CRYwt5y
Okay, this legend was even more confusing than the prophecy. What was all this talk about confidence and un-confidence and the children of destiny? What did it mean by truths and ideals, and what about this everlasting war? Guinevere opened this book hoping that all her questions about Illusion would be answered, but all she got out of this were even more questions.
While she tried to figure this out, her shield-like mirror suddenly glowed up, and a shadowy figure emerged from deep within it. It was her - the same, human-like creature who visited her earlier in her room. A short figure, she floated above Gwen's mirror, and her red eye seemed to glow in the light of her lantern. This was Arabella, and she had a job to do. Then and only then would Guinevere's nighttime terrors truly begin.
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